How Often Should Towels Be Washed?

If you are trying to go green, washing towels after each and every use will not achieve that objective. But if you are not worried so much about saving the planet, just in running a clean and efficient household, you may be wondering how often you should be washing towels in order to help keep your family healthy.

Decorative Display Towels

Decorative display towels help accentuate a bathroom and often match the bathroom decor in design. But if the decorative towels are rarely used, either by your family or by guests, there is no reason to launder them on a regular basis. Provided the towels still look clean and sanitary, they can be kept on the towel rack for a while until they start to show signs that it is time to launder them.

Hand Towels

Hand towels are used more frequently during the day and will need to be replaced more often than most other towels, as they see much more people traffic. Replace hand towels every other day or so, depending on how many people you have in your family. Hand towels that look dingy and dirty should be replaced straightaway with clean towels.

Shared Bathroom Towels

If you share a bathroom towel with your spouse or your children share towels between them, bathroom towels will need to be laundered more often than towels that are only used by individuals. Aim to wash shared bathroom towels every three to four days, or more frequently, such as after a vigorous workout or after your children have been playing in the dirt.

Single Use Washes

Towels should always be washed after each use during menstruation, illness, and at other times when the towels are likely to become soiled or filled with bacteria. Wash towels on a hot wash, separate from other articles of clothing or laundry before using them again.

The frequency of use will usually dictate how often towels should be washed. Towels that are not used that often, such as hand towels, do not need to be laundered each day, whereas towels that are shared by two or three people, or that are used to dry off during menstruation or illness should be washed more often.